OpenX expands to Southeast Asia, opens Singapore office

Ad tech firm OpenX will launch in Singapore in the third quarter of this year. This will serve as a regional hub for the company as its business continues to experience international growth.The company plans on "making the necessary investments in talent to ensure continued success and growth in the region" and the current plan is to increase headcount in the region by more than a dozen. The release also added that, OpenX’s investment in APAC will continue throughout 2018 with additional headcount and expansion into other markets, including Australia where it hopes to launch by the end of the year.This move comes after OpenX experienced recent momentum in Japan, including 52% year-over-year growth in revenue with the hiring of a new senior business leader and the doubling of publisher partnerships in the region. Expansion in Southeast Asia is said to supplement OpenX’s presence in other Asian markets, most notably Japan, where the company claims to rank as the second largest digital advertising exchange behind Google.Open X's co-founder, Jason Fairchild,added that the growth of programmatic technology "opens up even greater possibilities to drive consumer engagement at scale” as mobile and in app engagement currently dominate the region.“We look forward to supporting the leading content creators and app developers throughout the region to grow their businesses with the highest quality, innovative advertising technology solutions we have been known for more than a decade,” he added.According to a Fairchild, the opportunity in APAC right now is massive and the region is a largely mobile market, with mobile app advertising surging. Quoting an eMarketer report, he said that digital advertising in Southeast Asia surpassed US$2 billion in 2017, growing 20% year-over-year.“The market growth and the desire expressed by leading brand marketers in the region for innovative technologies and partners with deep commitments to quality and strengths in mobile offer a perfect growth opportunity for OpenX,” he added.“We felt the time was right to grow our regional partnerships and grow our presence throughout the market,” he said. In terms of Singapore specifically, Fairchild said the city-state had a lot of its existing global partners located. “It is innovative, tech centered culture offered great synergies for our business and for our recruiting efforts,” he added.